One misconception about marriage, when it comes to credit scores, is that both spouses lose their individual credit scores and combine into one huge score.
That’s not true.
Each individual is responsible for their own credit score.
HOWEVER, one spouse’s credit score can affect the other when it comes to purchasing things TOGETHER.
For instance, if you and your spouse are ready to purchase a house together but you both have different credit scores, what does this mean when you go to get approved for a loan?
Well, when people say that marriage means having a collective credit score, it doesn’t mean that they combine and average your scores.
What they do is take what is called the “lower mid score” for each spouse. Each of the 3 major credit bureaus gives you a credit score based on their own findings.
The lender looks at all three scores for each spouse and takes the middle one for each.
For example, you might have 745, 755 and 733. Your spouse might have 610, 625 and 633.
The lender will pull your 745 and your spouses 625, and choose the lowest score out of the two, which is 625.
You don’t want to let your spouse down do you? Neither do we.
We’re not going to tell you to get rid of all your debt, or something crazy like that, because what some people don’t know is…